EYN#048: 5 Real World Learnings From Speaking At 2 Huge Events

Last week I was invited to speak at two big events in London: "Big Data LDN" at Olympia and "Technology For Marketing" at the ExCel. 

Thankfully, my sessions were a real hit (if I didn't do a good job, why would you trust me?). 

But I also sat in loads of sessions from other presenters.  Here are some lessons for anybody that has presentations coming up:

Screens Can Be Small

Nearly all stages were using big TV screens as their main screen.  Whilst they were huge TVs, they were small screens for an audience of 100+ people.  I saw a lot of sessions where the font and diagram was too small for everybody apart from the front row (and even they had to squint).

Minimise your text and intricate diagrams at big events.  Less is more on your slides.

You Need To Raise Your Game In A Noisy Distracting Environment

Most stages are distracting places.  Show goers are walking past, other speakers are projecting their voice on other stages and booths are playing raucous "Spin The Wheel" games on the stand next door.  Some stages give the audience personal headphones and some rely on loud speaker systems.

Your content and delivery needs to stand out from all that distraction.  It needs to be engaging, exciting and compelling.  It MUST be great or you will literally be drowned out by the excitement next door. 

It's Normal To Feel Bad Before You Present

I love snowboarding.  Before I drop into a particularly difficult steep slope, or a big jump I feel nervous and a bit sick.  That's how I feel before a big presentation and how I felt last week.   Honestly, it's normal to feel like crap before you present.  My stomach was churning, I felt restless and the negative inner voice was trying it's best to derail me.

So don't spiral if you feel bad.  Acknowledge everybody does, then keep going.  You've got this.

Don't Diss Your Slides 

Some people were obviously given their slides by someone else.  Comments like "I don't know why marketing made me put this slide in" aren't helpful.  If you're presenting the slides, own them.  If you don’t like them either fix them before, or suck it up and be positive.  Dissing your content makes the audience feel a bit awkward and doesn't make your organisation look great.

Don't Cram, Prune

I went to one keynote where the presenter tried to deliver a 1 hour talk in 30 mins.  And he told us that very thing several times.  He then rushed through the content,  apologised multiple times and it felt horrible as an audience member.

Don't cram, prune.  No-one knows what you didn't say.  So if you have a 30 min talk in 1 hour, remove half of the content.  Make sure that 30 min content is awesome.  The only person that knows the good stuff you left out is you.

Well there you go.  Hot off the press from last week.

Hope this helps

Ben